Style over substance

So if you are at a university and the weekly email newsletter has a link to the bookstore's "MAC-over" you probably assume it's some kind of Apple promotion. After all, most university campuses seem to have a deal with Apple computers for educational discounts. Sure, it's commercialization of the university, but an argument can be made that it is related to academics/education by virtue of the ubiquitousness of computers in modern education. And further to that, the student body does get an educational discount on their purchases, so at the very least there is some return to the students.

Well, it turns out my impression of what the "MAC-over" was missed the mark by just a bit... ok, by a whole hell of a lot. The article explained how the bookstore was happy to have their "first choice" of MAC cosmetics offer a fully stocked cosmetics counter with "technicians"; taking up space in the already tiny bookstore.

Now I understand the the need and utility of cosmetics; but when your university is always in Playboy's top five party schools, this kind of action just makes it seems like the school is giving up on the hard things, like books and learning, and taking up the challenge of finding the right concealer. I wonder if this is a sign that I should just look better for my lectures and forget about actually teaching things. Hell, the way the budget and furlough plans are going maybe I'll start being a corporate shill too.

10% less = long rambling blog

So I have been wanting to post this for a few days, I just hadn't gotten around to it until now. But a few days ago I got an email from the California Faculty Association; it was not good news. It seems that the California State University (CSU) system, of which I am a part, is getting hit with a huge budget cut this year; over $500 MILLION!

For a bit of background I should point out that California has an economy larger than most developed countries. It actually has a larger economy than Spain or Canada! One would think that this is a good thing; it probably is, if the state wasn't governed by a bunch of morons. I don't know enough about economics to understand what the root cause of this crisis is, but here are some potential reasons.

Ultimately the problem seems to be the binge and purge nature of the state spending history. If they have money they spend like mad and as soon as it runs out they cut everything. I'm not sure what "brilliant" economists think this is good way to manage one of the largest economies in the world, but I'm fairly certain if this was a Latin American country the government would have been overthrown by now.

So, why am I bitching about this? Well, I have to admit that I have been rather isolated and hadn't really cared about it until recently. I feel bad about this in retrospect, because I am only now faced with the problems that other state employees have already had to face; a 10% cut in salary! This is a huge hit to anyone, particularly in the fashion that it has been done here, which is with little to no notice. Of course it's not called a salary cut, it's called a furlough; you just don't get to come to work on two Fridays each month. Until now this has not affected the universities, but because of the magnitude of the problem, the CSU is now proposing to have faculty members, along with the staff, take furloughs as well.

Of course the problem with this is that nobody seems to have thought through how this will work. Sure, if you are working on a road crew you can take a couple of days off a month and the project will still get finished, eventually. But as a faculty member I don't quite have the same option. I still have to teach my classes, grade homework and exams, prepare lectures and all the rest of the work that keeps me up at night. Now, will I be allowed to just not mark 10% of the students work? I'd be happy with that; I really hate grading. But I won't be able to, I have to maintain the same level of education standards. And what about the other aspects of my job; you know the research, grant and paper writing the part that really keeps me up at nights working my ass off way more than the number of hours I'm paid to work in a week. If I do 10% less on those fronts will I still get tenure? Fuck that, I'll still be judged in the same way I always would have been. So ultimately I will be doing exactly the same amount of work, just for 10% less pay.

Now I realize all the points above are ultimately petty issues. The real problem of course is the surprise salary cut. I have no idea when/if this may (or may not) happen. Nor do I know how long it will last. Oh yeah, if it doesn't happen there may be layoffs; and in such a case the most recently hired faculty (potentially me) will be let go first. The reality of the problem is that I have not been in a position to be saving even close to 10% of my salary each month; so this clearly will not be a good situation. I'm sure we can make it through, but I certainly won't be spending more money. Which makes me wonder; isn't my spending money what helps fuel the economy and increase state funds through tax revenue? I've said I'm not an economist, but I see something fundamentally wrong with this model.

Final, and possibly most important for the long term, is what this situation has done to my perception of the university system in this state. This is not the first time such a crisis has hit the state and I seriously doubt it will be the last; they didn't learn the last times why would I expect it to be different this time. So, as a highly desirable university professor why should I stay in this state any longer than necessary? Do I really need to go through this kind of crap every 10 years? Why not move to a more stable state/country and teach there? So far, I can't come up with a good reason not to consider the option should it present itself, and when more and more good faculty member think this way is when the long term damage will become evident.

The difference a ride makes

The ride home from work today once again reminded me why I like bicycling to work so much. The ride itself is pretty unspectacular, there is a nice enough descent and a pretty good climb, then a whole lot of traffic lights; but it's the act of riding that makes it worthwhile.

By the end of the day I was feeling pretty run-down and just in a bit of a funk. I think this has something to do with feeling as though I have not accomplished anything since getting the grant out; revising a lab manual and writing a recommendation letter seem kind of trivial in comparison to a grant for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, if I had to drive home I'm certain that my mood would not have improved. I never feel better driving somewhere; most often I get annoyed at bad drivers, shitty traffic and/or lack of parking. But on the bike things are different.

I guess it just comes down to doing some physical work and probably the general feeling of joy that I get from riding. It doesn't matter that I probably have over a dozen stop signs/lights on my ride or that I have about a 2 km long hill to climb (with backpack), those things are trivial in the end. Certainly the riding does take something out of me, by the end of the week I'm topping 100 km of riding just for commuting. It's not as much as I used to ride (hell that could be less than a single ride/race) but with the pressures and time of work it gets physically tiring. But all the same it results in an inevitable change in my attitude, I can be feeling crappy before a ride, I never feel (psychologically) crappy after a ride.

So let me just throw this out as a suggestion to those few of you who read my blog. If you do drive to work daily try riding home from work one night. Sure the logistics suck in some cases to set this up, but give it a shot, you may be surprised at the difference it makes.

As a side note, if you are looking for a way to listen to music or podcasts while you ride get an iPod shuffle. I have one of the previous generations and as you can see from the photo below it can be very convenient to use. I happen to have earbuds with a cord that can be shortened so I don't have to deal with a really long mess of wire. I would also suggest only using a single earbud, so that you can hear traffic with the other ear. And if you are wondering what I'm listening to I've started the Great Conversations series from the University of Minnesota; the older ones are a bit dated, but quite engaging to listen to.

Another one down

So if you've been following my few and random twitter posts you're up to speed on most of what is going on with me; albeit in absolutely tiny context-less amounts. So this will be a bit of a recap, or for those with better things to do than wait for me to tweet, the whole story of what I have been up to.

One of the things that I have been doing a bit more of lately is bicycling; mostly to work but some on the weekends, when I get out and ride with my team and a few other clubs on a mixed ride. It's been interesting to see the ride transform over the past months; from something that was kind of mellow with a few fast points, to something that's a lot faster most of the time, with the same fast points, that are just faster. The fun part to all of this is that my fitness is surprisingly good; I always seem to be one of the first up the major climb on the route and I'm always right there for the sprint after the long flat drag a bit later. It makes me really miss the days of racing, hopefully one of these days I'll get a handle on the work enough to have time to race again. Oh, if you were wondering, the SRAM Red gruppo is absolutely fabulous! I'm so glad I made the investment.

On the work side of things I can't complain too much about how things have gone. I just finished off my first big NIH grant. If I get it I'll be pulling in $275,000 for the lab, and another $136,000 for the research foundation. Of course I will see none of the at goes to the "foundation", nor will they really do much other than file some paperwork for me and hold the purse-strings on the $275K that is mine. Yet somehow this entitles them to about a 50% cut of what I ask for. I think I might actually just be institutionalized "protection" money; it has a whole mobster feel to it. But at least the grant is done, now I just have to wait 8 months to find out if I get anything.

I finally seem to have my undergrads working in the lab again. Though one of them is an absolute mess. I really should not have agreed to take this student on over the summer; I had my doubts and they aren't being alleviated by the student's performance. I only hope that the effort that I put in to train this one pays off, so far I'm not sure the student can even hold onto a concept for more than a few minutes. I just really hope the student doesn't break anything expensive, I'm out of start up funds and can't afford to replace things.

Anyway that's about it for now, tonight I get to take a break from working for a change. But soon enough I will have to be back at it, there is another grant cycle coming up next month and I need to get some papers out. But at least tonight I can take the time off and not feel too guilty about it.